A monthly habit we are trying to keep: a short note on what the studio actually did, as opposed to what it published. October was mostly other people’s launches — Harborline’s bags reached the shelves, the Alder & Pine storefront took its first commission, and a bakery site we cannot talk about yet went through three rounds of argument about a checkout button. It is in a better place. So is the bakery.
Two things joined the studio this month. A secondhand letterpress, bought from a retiring printer in the valley, which we have no commercial use for and constant actual use: proofs, posters, the occasional label run for clients who want their packaging to feel like paper. And a standing Friday hour for reading — no phones, no deliverables, just the backlog of essays and manuals the week keeps crowding out.
One thing left: our last stock-photo subscription. We kept reaching for images that could have been anyone’s, for businesses whose whole value is that they are not anyone’s. Photographing the real thing takes longer and costs more, and the difference is visible from across the room.
November is quieter on paper, which in this studio usually means it will not be. If you are planning a spring launch, the time to start the conversation is now — the first-week audit alone will repay the early start.
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